If they are outlaws represanted, I want to find it out. I have no objection to any body’s watching them closely, & will do so myself. If they are rogues, it will do good; if they are honest it will do them no harm. The best way to preserve men honest is to watch them closely, and not give them too great latidude to practice rascality; but I have not been able to learn from the of the county court or any any one else that a Mormon has ever been convicted of any great crime in this , which cannot be said in truth of all the citizenses of the .

It is a very curious idea to me that mormons <​a prophet​> should have any thing do with war, & much more that he should have the command of the troops. When I made known my surprize at this, I was met with all that cool deliberation which characterizes this people, by a reference to Moses, the great ancient prophet, who led the Israelites from Egypt to Jerusalem. They say that Moses had the command of the troops, and when they fought their enemies, according to his orders, and Aron & Hur, his Aiddecamps, held up their general’s hands, the army of Israel prevailed.

They also referred me to Mormon, a prophet mentioned in their Golden Bible, very similar in his history to that of Moses. He led his people to battle & fought terribly. Some may say this is fiction. Well, be it so. Others may say Moses is a fiction. Well, be that so, also. Every one to their liking. I shall not decide who is right, or who is wrong: but “if it was right to have prophet, General Moses; & prophet, General Mormon, for commader in chief, then, why is it not <​just as a​> right to have prophet, Generl Joseph, for commader now”? “And which is the most honorable,” say they “if we are compelled to p[r]eserve our lives by force, to rise up like men & fight, or sit down in the chimney [p. [3]]